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BROOKLYN — Hard to believe it was 18 months ago that Deron Williams held the Mavericks hostage.

The talented point guard was weighing his free-agent options in the summer of 2012. The Mavericks were in the hunt, at least they thought they were. They had everything else on hold waiting for a decision. When Williams elected to stay with the Brooklyn Nets, there were howls in Dallas that the kid from The Colony should have come home.

However, that wasn’t necessarily what the Mavericks wanted. There was a reason owner Mark Cuban didn’t show up at the recruiting visit to woo Williams in July 2012.

Looking back, it might not have been the worst thing in Mavericks history to lose out on Williams.

In the season and a half since he signed a five-year, $98 million deal, Brooklyn has gone 57-45 in games Williams has played. They are 8-12 when he doesn’t play.

That 65-57 overall record isn’t much different from the Mavericks’ 66-60 record.

The Nets have only a first-round playoff loss in seven games to Chicago last year to show for their investment.

Probably not what billionaire Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov had in mind when he won the Williams sweepstakes.

And Williams has taken a significant brunt of criticism for why the Nets haven’t elevated into the Miami-Indiana neighborhood, which is where the Eastern Conference elite begins and ends.

“It’s New York,” said Devin Harris. “You got to have thick skin. You got to be able to handle the media and a lot of different things. And you’re expected to win, and the owner is expecting you to bring home championships. It’s a good kind of pressure, but it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.”

Harris knows. He was the Nets’ point guard when they were in New Jersey and was an All-Star with them in 2008-09. He understands how things work in New York.

And he can relate to what Williams is going through, especially because Williams is the focal point of the organization.

“When you’re the face of the franchise, obviously, some of the blame goes to you and that’s just the way it is,” Harris said. “That’s just something he’s going to have to deal with.”

Cuban has steadfastly avoided talking directly about Williams, other than saying “he’s one of the top point guards in the league.”

But when the owner saw Brooklyn add numerous new pieces before this season, including Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry, he figured there would be a transition period that would not be easy for rookie coach Jason Kidd.

“Chemistry is not easy,” Cuban said. “It takes time. And now it looks like they are starting to get it. And it takes trust. You have to trust everybody, the players, the organization and the coaches, there has to be a level of trust and that’s not easy.”

This season, Williams missed 16 games because of ankle problems. He has come off the bench in his two games back and for the season is averaging 13.4 points and 6.8 assists. Those are the lowest numbers since his rookie season.

And, of course, the Nets came crashing out of the gate this season, falling 11 games under .500. since then, they have won eight of nine in January. This is not the first time it’s happened. Last season, they won 10 of 11 to start the new year.

That’s what the locals are expecting from a team that has six players (Garnett, Pierce, Williams, Brook Lopez, Andrei Kirilenko and Joe Johnson) who have been All-Stars and another (Terry) who was sixth man of the year.

Clearly, on paper at least, this is a team built to contend for a title. But so far the results have not born that out.

“Everytime there’s been a team that added a bunch of All-Stars, it’s taken them awhile to get going,” Cuban said, recalling the season that Miami added LeBron James and Chris Bosh. “What I told [Kidd] was that Miami was 9-9 and had to have a special meeting. But now they [the Nets] are starting to see it come together. They’ve only lost one game this calendar year.”

And winning, of course, is a cure-all.

“It’s a tough environment,” Harris said of playing in New York. “You’re under a microscope all the time. They got a lot of stuff going on and I think he [Williams] is handling it well. He also hasn’t been 100 percent healthy. But as long as they’re winning, it solves a lot of problems. And they’ve been playing better of late. They’ve found a bit of an identity.”

Which is good for Williams.

But the Mavericks won’t be shedding any tears about what might have been when they see the one that got away Friday night.

Get the latest Dallas sports news at SportsDayDFW.com

Utah vs. Brooklyn

Deron Williams’ regular-season and postseason stats with the Jazz and Nets:

Regular season

Team

Pts

Asts

FG%

3FG%

Jazz

17.3

9.1

.466

.358

Nets

18.5

8.3

.424

.358

Playoffs

Team

G

Pts

Asts

FG%

W-L

Jazz

44

21.1

9.6

.458

20-24

Nets

7

20.6

8.4

.425

3-4

High turnover

From the time Deron Williams joined the Brooklyn franchise in the 2010-11 season, Brook Lopez is the only player still on the team. How many new faces Williams has played with each season with the Nets.

2011-12

8

2012-13

8

2013-14

6

U.S. National Team

The Colony’s Deron Williams and Seagoville’s LaMarcus Aldridge were among the 28 players selected by USA Basketball to form the pool of players to choose from for the World Cup of Basketball this summer in Spain and the 2016 Rio Olympics: